The Tourist trophy segment of
the series featured a mixed bag that included Jos Koster’s
Porsche 904, Lincoln Small’s beautiful Brabham BT 8, some
Elvas, genuine AC Cobras, more Austin Healeys and local Jag
XK140 driven by John "Yellow Peril" Bird.

A car that you would normally
associate with red-carpet glamour rather than race-track
hurly-burly is this Aston Martin DB4, raced by England’s
Chris Ballard.

It looks very similar to the DB5 used by Sean Connery, aka
James Bond, in the 007 movie Goldfinger, the one fitted with
all sorts of espionage gadgetry.

One of the most enthralling
aspects of the original Springbok Series was that it mixed in
home-grown SA saloon cars with exotics from Europe, capable of
almost twice the speed of the tin-tops.

Who better to lead out the field of South African classic
saloon cars than Sarel van der Merwe and the 1965 Ford Galaxie?
Go Sarel go. That was the call from the stands, the crowds all
feeling they KNOW that man! Legends of the Nine-Hour indeed!

The horsepower revolution happened in European-type saloon-car
racing in 1963, when Ford Motor Company imported some American
Nascar-spec 7-litre Ford Galaxies to England to end Jaguar
domination at the sharp end of the field.

The Willment Galaxie raced here in the 1963 and 1964
Nine-Hours, and was then bought by Bob Olthoff to run in our
saloon car championship. In 1965 it just beat out the Lotus
Cortinas.

Also there were '65 Mustangs,
Alfas, Anglias, the brilliantly reliable Volvos… but who
remembers the Aunty Austin A35 as a racetrack hero?

The Camaro is more of a late
sixties racer, and as for the Stud – well, those were the
street-cars of choice for your average Jo’burg duck-tail
back in 1958. But the Zwartkops approach is that if it looks
good, run it!

The relaxed atmosphere of the
Zwartkops pits, and indeed the Killarney paddock in Cape Town,
makes the spectators feel part of the show, even though the
competitors and their crews are extremely serious about the
racing.

To get up close and personal with the cars and the stars is a
vital part of Zwartkops’ appeal.

Whether you run a million-buck Porsche, a modest MGA or a
battle-scarred old saloon, you are part of it in the classic
scene.

The one common denominator amongst all these racers is their
common love for cars for their own sake – they aren’t just
in it for personal glory.

As a fan, it helps to have a good memory and an historical
knowledge of motor racing to get the best out of the Legends
meeting. But the fact that the fans can mingle with the likes
of David Piper and Richard Atwood means a lot – and none of
it has that staged, public relations feel.

These guys love of cars means
that many of them simply won’t let old racing cars die –
like this great big beauty, which hasn’t been seen at
the track for over twenty years.

The massive 745i was BMW South Africa’s secret weapon to
take on the likes of the Alfa GTV6 and the Sierra XR8 on the
race tracks in 1985.

The car is almost 100 per cent original, even down to some of
the paintwork, and the rebuild is the handiwork of renowned
race car builder Alec Ceprnich.